Life

Patr. Serapheim II was born in Delvinë, southern Albania in the late seventeenth century to Albanian parents. Other details of his early life are unknown. He succeeded to the patriarchal throne after the deposition and banishment of Callinicus IV to Mount Sinai in 1757. In 1759, Patr. Serapheim invited Eugenios Voulgaris to head the reforms in the patriarchal academy in Constantinople. Influenced by Patr. Serapheim's pro-Russian ideals, Voulgaris contributed, during his tenure in the academy, to the improvement of relations of the Russian Empire with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1760, Serapheim gave permission to Cosmas of Aetolia to begin his first missionary travels to the villages of Thrace to establish schools.

Patr. Serapheim was deposed in 1761. After his deposition, Patr. Serapheim retired to Mount Athos. There, he replaced the old monastic house built by Anthanius the Athonite with a new structure, dedicated to St. Anthony the Great and the Apostle Andrew, which became the center piece of the Skete of St. Andrew in the mid nineteenth century.